


Inadequate

by apostate_anima



Series: Beyond All Reason [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 02:46:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11175384
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apostate_anima/pseuds/apostate_anima
Summary: After overhearing angaran women speak of their attraction to Jaal, Sara Ariadne begins having feelings of inadequacy regarding her relationship with the Resistance lieutenant.





	Inadequate

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posting from tumblr! This is from a prompt, if you wish to send me writing prompts find me on tumblr @animarosa uwu

Sara tapped her fingers to the rhythm of the song she was listening to, though she wasn’t paying much attention to it. With a sigh, she kept staring at the terminal screen, her current report half-finished. It seemed her mind was set on distracting her with the conversation she overheard earlier from a group of gossiping angaran ladies. Well, not gossiping, but sharing their admiration for Jaal. Or rather, their obvious attraction to him…and what a waste it was that he’d fallen for an ‘alien’. Sara was only thankful she had been wearing her hoodie over her head, hiding the embarrassment in her features when she hurried away earlier.

She knew better than to let something so insignificant bother her but the conversation resurfaced feelings of inadequacy in her. It was obvious she and Jaal were genetically incompatible and, while they hadn’t yet talked about having a family in the future, she thought she was robbing him of the opportunity to have a big angaran family of his own flesh and blood.

With a stifled groan and quick ruffling of her own hair, she chastised herself and tried to distract herself by singing along to the tune blaring from her speakers instead.

“ _Southern skies, have you ever noticed southern skies…Southern skies, it’s precious beauty_ …” she sang and hummed softly, fingers finally tapping the keyboard to the beat of the song as she continued her report.

Of course, this was the moment she would be interrupted by the one person she had been thinking about not a moment ago. Jaal casually walked into her room, smiling widely when he caught her singing and moving her shoulders slightly side to side in tune. Ever the sucker for procrastinating, Sara didn’t protest when Jaal stood before her and held out his hand. Her singing was only briefly interrupted by a giggle as she took his hand.

Pulling her to her feet, Jaal danced as best he could to the song, mostly following her lead. They danced, held each other close, and laughed when they tripped over each other until the song ended and it was followed by a faster, upbeat tune.

“I don’t think I can dance to that one,” Jaal chuckled, leaning down to her level and pressing his forehead to hers softly.

“If Drack can dance to it, so can you,” Sara laughed and snorted.

For a moment she was still, enjoying his closeness, her hands resting idly on his shoulders, reveling in his large hands on her hips, pulling her close. As she looked into his beautiful eyes, the thoughts she had been trying to block out came back to the front of her mind. It showed in her features, brow shifting with concern, lips downturning, because Jaal quickly pulled back slightly to look to her with worry.

“My darling, what’s wrong?” he asked in earnest, his hands coming up to cup her cheeks gently.

Sara bit her lower lip, avoiding his gaze momentarily when she took his hands in hers. Pulling them down in front of her chest, she gave them a firm squeeze when she asked, “Jaal…Are you…really, really happy with me? Do you feel there’s anything…missing?”

“Ari,” he used her nickname, his eyes widening in shock as if he’d been slapped across the face. “Of course! How could I not be? Have I…” his gaze shifted, as if searching his thoughts, brow furrowing with worry. “Have I not shown it enough? Is there something about your culture that I am missing? I could-”

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong!” she hurriedly reassured him, suddenly feeling guilty for distressing him like this.

Tilting his head slightly, worry dissipating mildly, he inquired, “Then why do you ask me this my dearest?”

“Oh Jaal…It’s just…You’re handsome, wonderful—” she smiled softly, enamoured by the way his cheeks and cowl flushed a darker shade of purple. Just as her smile came, it was gone, gaze downcast as she bit on her lower lip anxiously. “—and I’m not the only one that thinks that,” Sara went on and took a deep breath. “I heard some angaran ladies speaking about you…I bet you have more admirers and–Point I’m trying to make, Jaal, is…well, I’m not angaran, obviously, I’m an alien and–” Releasing his hands, she made a vague gesture at nothing in particular, mostly she waved her hands all around herself.  “I’ll never be able to give you what an angaran woman can, and…well–”

“Ariadne, darling, please,” Jaal was quick to interrupt her then, starting to understand where this uncertainty stemmed from. “I love you for who you are, your differences from my species included.” Offering one of his gentle, warm smiles, he took her hands in his again, lifting them to his lips to kiss her knuckles.

“But…But we’re not biologically compatible,” she tried to argue, mostly giving into her self-doubt. Yet, how could she let these doubts emerge when he praised her on a daily basis like this? “I know we haven’t talked about this much but…Doesn’t this concern you just a bit? I know how important families are to your people, I just feel…like I’m robbing you of your own…biological children…I feel selfish, I love you so, so much and…” Sara stumbled over her own words, mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Instead she opted to just slump forward against his chest and buried her face in his rofjinn, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“My darling, my dearest, owner of my heart.” Soothingly he drew an arm around her shoulders, bringing his other hand to caress her hair, lightly tracing the copper brown roots down to the fading blue-lilac hair dye. “Let me ask you the same then. Does it concern _you_?”

“I…No,” she admitted, resting her chin against his chest and stared up at his loving gaze. Of course, she hadn’t considered that this implied she wouldn’t have biological children with him either. “Even if it’s only ever just the two of us, I’d be just as immensely happy as I am with you now,” a smile tugged at the corners of her lips once more, unable to contain herself at the thought of spending the rest of her life with Jaal.

“There is your answer,” Jaal grinned widely at that, leaning his head down to kiss her forehead. “And if we ever wanted a family, there are other ways. My people value families, Ariadne, but that doesn’t mean it’s limited to biological children.”

“I should have probably asked you sooner,” she laughed. Standing on her toes, she pressed a quick chaste kiss to his chin. “Sorry, I just…let bad thoughts get to me sometimes, love.”

“Worry not. I am glad we talked about it though, thank you for sharing your worries with me, darling,” he declared. Gently grasping the back of her head, fingers threaded through her soft hair, he tugged her towards him as he leaned down meeting her lips in a soft, langid kiss.

Sara hummed happily against his lips, bringing her hands up around his neck, fingers softly tracing the grooves between his crests. The groan she elicited from him had her heart fluttering when he deepened the kiss in turn, his rougher tongue tracing her lower lip before she allowed him access into her mouth, meeting him halfway with her softer one. The familiar tingling of his bioelectricity was quickly egging her on, goosebumps running all over her skin. Just as she was really starting to get into it, sucking in his lower lip and lightly nipping, he pulled back gently, staring at her through hooded eyes as a whimper escaped her from the loss of contact.

Clearing his throat, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear when he said, “Now…if I saw correctly, I believe I interrupted you writing a report.”

“Oh no, I was singing,” Sara was quick to reply, any excuse to keep him close to her, to keep going, anything but going back to her duty.

“While writing a report,” Jaal didn’t miss a beat as he gently pulled her arms from around his waist, kissing them once again. Just like that, he began pulling her back to her desk.

“Jaaaaaal,” she whined, pulling back herself, trying to get out of his grip. “I’ll do it later, just-”

“Sara, you should finish it,” he insisted, refusing to let go, the terminal screen with the unfinished report staring (menacingly) at her from behind him.

“Don’t you want to kiss me a lot instead?” she asked with a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows. “Come on, you kissed me first! You can’t tease me like that!

“Take it as a promise for later my temptress,” he did his best to wink as she taught him. “Besides…You always complain when you leave reports for the last minute, so…”

“Sara, I agree with Jaal. You should finish that report,” SAM spoke then, his orb flaring on her desk. “Lest you risk procrastinating on it so much that you regret it later.”

Sara stopped protesting then, pouting petulantly and leering at both Jaal and SAM. Giving up her fight, she allowed Jaal to pull her back to her chair, on which she unceremoniously flopped down on, rolling back until she hit the edge of her desk. “…I hate both of you…”

“I love you my darling,” Jaal chuckled, quite used to her idioms by now, knowing she didn’t literally hate him, it was just playful banter. Except she was annoyed. “If you finish your report soon…well, I’ll go take a shower first and I’ll come back to check on you. It’ll be up to you how soon I get to deliver further on that kiss we started on,” Jaal chuckled and kissed her cheek before stepping away.

Waving at her from the door and winking (again!), he left only when she waved back, her pout unrelenting. Now she was really regretting showing him about winking suggestively.


End file.
